Hamburgers and Ice Cream Cones

What a great day!

We started out at Dr. Gaufin's office for a post-op appointment. In describing Mark's recovery I think the man used the word "remarkable" about a dozen times. He said Mark is healing very well. Scars look good. He told him again that it wasn't his day to die. But my favorite was this:

Me: "So on your base scale of average people, where does Mark's recovery fit in?"
Doc: "If he was the average person...he's be dead."

Of course, I cried, again. My poor husband. All he does is see me cry. But this time with a huge smile on my face! He is scheduled for one more MRI on Monday to make sure things are looking good in there. Then we'll see the doc and go over it...and that will be it with the neurosurgeon.

We then skipped speech therapy because, "I JUST DON'T WANT TO GO!"

We hung out at my mom's house for a bit as we had another doc appointment in Pleasant Grove at 3:30. About 2:00 Mark was restless and said we should go and just take out time getting there. He wanted to stop and get something...I thought he was saying he wanted to get a Smart Cookie (if you've never had one, you haven't lived). So we started out of the driveway and he was giving me turn-by-turn directions to where he wanted to go. He finally was saying that this Arctic place up on the right makes the best "hamburgers". I said, "Um, really?" So we pulled into Arctic Circle in PG and he again said he wanted a "hamburger". I pull up to the speaker and asked what kind: Ranch Burger, Cheeseburger, etc. He says, "No, just the plain white one." Ahhhh....the bell goes off. He wants an ice cream cone. This is the typical pattern for us. He says something and I try to interpret what he really means. Sometimes it's real words like "hamburger", sometimes it's made-up words like "chazzer". We did end up going to Smart Cookie in AF. They're MY favorite!

Dr. Liddle is Mark's primary care physician. He called me the day after his surgery and was very concerned about what had happened. He had read the reports and knew how serious things were. Mark didn't know this until we were sitting in the waiting room. He was a little overcome. While waiting in the exam room we had more discussion about what had happened to him. He spoke of very private personal things. And I cried, again. Everyday I am more amazed by his recovery. My Mark is reappearing more and more each day. He told me he considers Dr. Liddle a very good friend. Everyone should have that kind of relationship with their doctor.